The Organic Slowdown

The Nielsen market research company reported this week that sales of organic products barely grew over a year ago. There was a mere 1% increase, down from 24% growth last year. (Keep in mind that we're still talking about growth here, just at a much slower pace.) Their report attributed the slowdown to the lousy economy, but I couldn't help wondering if their conclusion was a bit shortsighted. The company specifically tracked sales of grocery items with bar codes, or products designed to be sold by middlemen in conventional retail stores. It didn't include direct sales at farmers' markets and CSA's which, I can tell you anecdotally, are doing just fine.

I have a friend who is an organic farmer, who sells only at farmers' markets and through a CSA program. I asked her once why she bothers with organic certification when all of her sales are direct sales. She answered that when she first started, back in 2002, the federal organic certification program had just gone into effect and customers were taking it very seriously, and asking about it regularly. But these days, she said, folks are much more concerned with buying stuff that's locally grown, and they hardly every ask whether her produce is organic. I suspect some of this attitude change is also showing up the Nielsen numbers.